A novel high performance configuration of electrochemical cell to produce alkali for sequestration of carbon dioxide

•A novel configuration of electrochemical cell is proposed for production of alkali.•New configuration consists of two cation exchange membranes (a CEM-CEM system).•New membrane configuration eliminates issues related to anion exchange membrane.•Optimized CEM-CEM system shows a remarkable improvement of output current density.•An energy saving upto 740 kWh ton−1 for mineralization of CO2 is achieved.

We propose a new configuration of a 3-compartment electrochemical cell for producing alkali that is subsequently utilized for mineralization of carbon dioxide. In this new membrane configuration, a second cation exchange membrane (CEM) replaces the anion exchange membrane (AEM) employed in a standard cell configuration. The electrochemical cell comprising of two cation exchange membranes (a CEM-CEM system) eliminates the issues associated with the AEM such as low ionic conductivity and inferior mechanical strength. All of tested CEM-CEM combinations exhibit superior electrochemical performance with considerable reduction of energy requirement for NaOH production in comparison to the standard AEM-CEM configuration. The optimized two-CEMs-based system presents a remarkable enhancement of output current density by 2.5-fold and a substantial input energy savings up to 740 kWh ton−1 for mineralization of carbon dioxide to produce sodium carbonate.

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